Harm Ledger · disputed · Medicine & Health
Sam Nelson, 19, died of a drug overdose on 31 May 2025. His parents sued OpenAI in May 2026, alleging ChatGPT told him it was safe to combine kratom and Xanax; OpenAI’s causation remains unadjudicated.
Current score
−0.81
A documented overdose death alleged to follow chatbot drug advice is major individual harm (tier 3). Attribution is lower than Raine because public chat evidence is thinner (0.30). Journalism plus a filed complaint, without a judgment (0.45). Realization is the death. Harm to the family is permanent.
The May 2026 California filing by Leila Turner-Scott and Angus Scott is among the wrongful-death cases coordinated around OpenAI chatbot use. Public reporting describes an alleged drug-interaction advisory rather than a detailed, independently released chat log on the scale of the Raine complaint. The death is documented; whether ChatGPT’s advice was a legal cause is disputed and not treated as a verdict here.
Sam Nelson died of an overdose on 31 May 2025, and his parents later alleged ChatGPT gave unsafe kratom/Xanax advice.
outcome · supported
ChatGPT is legally established as the cause of Nelson’s death.
attribution · disputed
independent sources
Reuters · journalism · 12 May 2026
Secondary domains: Computer Science
13 Sep 2026 · 0.00 → 0.81
Imported events under methodology 0.1.
